


Terms

by MakeSadieStop



Series: This Something [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: And there's sure as shit no fluff here, Angst, Because Naruto has this weird fascination with hickeys somehow, Because it wouldn't be mine if it didn't have angst or fluff, Kissing, Love Bites, M/M, Office Sex, Oral Sex, Post-Break Up, Teasing, This is the first time I've had to use 'sex' in a tag wow, Well a little but it's mostly setup for that angst, you'd think i'd be better at tagging by now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 05:51:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11503086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakeSadieStop/pseuds/MakeSadieStop
Summary: After everything that happened, Gaara never thought he would work with Naruto this closely.On the teetering edge of smut, but smut gives way to relationship angst.





	Terms

Naruto has one thousand words for sex, and Gaara still can’t think of a single one that’s right.

To fuck is coarse, abrasive, a description that could just as easily apply to sand. Gaara has been taught that the world cannot be thought of in terms of sand.

To bang is an explosion, imagery that Gaara will never be able to separate from death. It may not be harsh, but it is abrupt, without subtlety, an impact starting from the center and rushing in waves outward. That’s closer, but still not what he does.

To make love is—well, stupid. Love isn’t spontaneously conceived at the point where two bodies meet. It’s not a baby, dammit. And if the love isn’t finished being made until the very instant your vision blanks and your body contorts and your mouth tries to make up its own language for a cry out to heaven, what were your motivations to make it in the first place?

In conclusion, Gaara is a philosophical hypocrite. But in this moment, he can’t convince himself to feel shame, much less remember the other nine hundred ninety-seven.

Of course he can remember how it started. The first meeting after the last day. Hours of uneasy smiles and terse nods and monosyllabic exchanges between the once-closest villages in the Alliance, as Shikamaru narrowed his slanting eyes whenever he thought the two antsy Kage weren’t looking. Gaara praying that Naruto hadn’t told him, and Temari hadn’t either, because however much he trusted Leaf’s leading strategist, he didn’t want him to know of the Kazekage’s personal vulnerability. He hated that idea almost as much as he cringed at the prospect of his future brother-in-law getting in on his disastrous love life.

Then the meeting ended, and the Kage and the advisors and the officials and the ambassadors all filtered out. And Naruto cleared his throat, and the conversation’s initial panic faded into _something else_ that still edged every word and every touch with a sharp crackle _,_ and the next coherent thought Gaara can recall having is _please don’t let us break the table_.

They didn’t. Though Gaara was left behind to scrub it down with sand.

From there, it only kept _happening_ , faster and faster. Squirming in their seats at Alliance meetings and Gokage summits and any other diplomatic event which required them to share a room, of which there seemed to be a dramatic increase lately. Hanging back in halls and inns and hot springs and even one public restroom, for a length of time that once inspired Temari to ask if he had to fight another Great War on the way back.

Gaara has even adopted his childhood spiky hairstyle again, just so no eyebrows are raised when he doesn’t have time to smooth everything back down.

They’ve never been more productive. It’s like an Academy schoolboy attacking his homework with a fierceness so he’ll be allowed to run off with his friends before dark. By the time Naruto arrived, Gaara had already scribbled down a bullet-pointed solution for every problem facing Leaf and Sand this month.

It’s a good thing he knows how to work ahead, because Gaara barely has the chance to lock the door before he’s pinned against it.

There’s something about the Kazekage Office that flips on every switch Naruto has: attention-seeking, possessive—

There was a list. There was a very good list that Gaara had prepared that probably contained a few choice insults which would have been excellent for building sexual tension, but Gaara can feel Naruto’s hips against his through all the layers of fabric and those layers have to go _now_. Before he can give voice to this, warm fingertips are tapping against his cheekbones, their comrades meeting under his chin to tilt it up.

He cannot avoid these eyes, or the memories he has of them. He settles on the safest one, the most recent one, until he remembers what the rest of Naruto was doing at the time and he scrambles for a better thought. A thought he can say out loud, to focus on sounds that don’t make him want to curl up and cover his face.

“That was quick.” It’s not sarcasm, just a breathy, incredulous note.

“Shut up,” Naruto groans.

“ _Make me_.”

“Ha. Taught you well, huh?”

Gaara can’t dispute it, or agree, or what’s he supposed to do again? Because the crackling edges are back, and so is Naruto’s mouth, and everything is red-and-yellow static until he has the faintest of vague ideas that he should probably breathe.

He doesn’t have to gasp out for a break, because Naruto has already pulled back, taking a few moments to pant and recover. But he’s even abusing the brief respite, stealing the seconds that should have this—this— _this_ melting away to instead build it up even more. Naruto needs to breathe just like anyone else, but apparently he doesn’t need to do it in his own personal space.

Heat reaches the corner of Gaara’s mouth—the shell of his ear—the crook of his neck— _oh for the love of all that is merciful and holy you bastard._ He _knows_ how Gaara’s squirming. He _hears_ how Gaara’s whining. The complaint rises every time breath teases over skin, then falters with the hope of relief, and back again whenever Naruto’s faint laugh _murders_ that hope.

“Patience.” He’s practically _singing_ with sheer insufferable joy at the state he has Gaara in. “Let me get a look at you.”

Naruto is tugging his collar down. Gaara isn’t sure whether his stutter is of protest or gratitude. Does he hate the vulnerability, or does he love the thrill?

He can’t decide. He’s never been able to decide, or he wouldn’t have all these marks already, the ones Naruto finds _so_ fascinating that he just won’t stop tracing their violet borders.

“Good thing you keep these covered,” he comments, interrupting the fluid motion to give one a tap.

“Scandal?” It’s a struggle, but Gaara thinks he found the word Naruto seems to be suggesting.

“Nah. Nobody would ever _dare_ gossip about _you_.” It takes Gaara a moment to recognize the teasing note, or he would have to dispute that.

“I just couldn’t stand the thought of anybody else getting to see you like this.” Tease is the wrong word now. A tease is lighthearted and poking, which this isn’t. This is . . . dark? Soft? Those two don’t catch it, either.

“Not to mention—this is all mine, isn’t it? My work. I should get to decide if I want it on display, shouldn’t I?”

Gaara would call him out on that horrendously clichéd use of an art metaphor, but Naruto can’t be interrupted right now.

He’s painting.

By the time Gaara drifts back down to Earth, Naruto’s fingers have drifted to his buttons.

“Need more canvas,” he explains.

“You definitely need new material.”

“What did I tell you about shutting up?”

“What did I tell you about making me?”

Naruto has made it so far down now that he has to bend to reach the rest. Wait, he’s not _bending_ , he’s—

“Oh, believe it.” As he shifts his knees, Naruto turns his head up—and with that smile, Gaara’s mind flashes the exact same shade of blinding white.

He almost doesn’t hear the next part, the promise, that doesn’t even pretend at innocence. “I will.”

Gaara doesn’t fully realize that _this is happening_ until his shirt has been tossed aside and the tug at his waistband signals that the pants aren’t far behind.

“Wait, no, _don’t_. Please.”

“Why not?”

“I—I can’t watch you—”

The beginnings of his desperate appeal are cut off with a kiss, just under his navel.

It’s not even the contact. If he wants to, Gaara has learned to stammer on through arcs of electricity that feel like they should have killed him.

It’s the _memory_. Their _very first_.

“Then close your eyes.” Another. Lower. “Watching isn’t even the best part.”

Gaara has no choice. He shuts his eyes. Naruto hasn’t gone much lower when he has to cover his mouth, too. The hand that isn’t muffling the worst of the sounds clenches in a fist at his side.

He hates it when Naruto does this. Not the feeling—if you ask this greedy, selfish monster of a body, he _lives for_ the feeling. It’s . . . everything else.

Naruto is kneeling, and that means—worship. Adoration. Whatever you’d like to call it, Gaara doesn’t deserve it, and he can’t stand the fact that Naruto is convinced that he does. From there, it only gets worse. Weakness, guilt, selfishness, Gaara always loses the gift of thought before he can finish the list.

What he knows for certain is that Naruto is taking every gift he has and turning it to this, all for Gaara’s sake and all for Gaara’s pleasure. But Naruto’s hands, Naruto’s mouth—they are meant for better things.

 _Naruto_ is meant for better things. So much better than him.

***

Gaara’s subconscious must love irony, because when thought returns now, it’s once again to the tender attentions of Naruto’s fingers—buttoning him up this time.

It isn’t the first time Uzumaki Naruto has torn him apart and then put him back together.

He isn’t given much time to contemplate, though, because he made the mistake of letting his eyelids drift open. Naruto notices immediately, locking eyes with him and still not missing a step with the buttonholes.

He wouldn’t call it a lovestruck gaze. More of a staring contest wakeup call, until Naruto makes it up to his neck and gives his collar a satisfied tweak.

“All these times now, and you still black out at the end.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s cute. I get to watch the sleepy recovery while I dress you. Hold you in my lap like a little doll.” There’s such affection in his voice that Gaara couldn’t find the comparison offensive if he tried.

If he did, he would only be feeling guilty when Naruto goes and followed it up with that nervous laugh of his. He’s so busy holding Gaara that he can’t scratch the back of his own neck like he must be itching to do. “It’s my favorite part of this, ya know? Getting to see you without your armor on. Metaphorically and otherwise,” he adds. “I had no idea your skin was so _soft_.”

Gaara lets him have his fantasy, doesn’t protest the thumb tracing with wonder over his apparently-soft cheek. He realizes too late that he should have stopped this in its tracks before Naruto could get that grin on his face.

“You know what’s a close second, though?”

Gaara has a feeling he’s about to find out.

“The way you look—well, _during_.”

And he’s going to regret it.

“Of course you’re blushing, but that’s not even the best part. Your eyes get all scrunched, ‘cause you’re usually so flustered that you’ve gotta close them. And then you just can’t keep your mouth shut, but you’re shy, so you try to cover it up. No, the _best_ part—”

Apparently Naruto had no idea Gaara’s skin could get so _warm_ , either, because he won’t lift his hands for one _second_ now that he’s made it like this.

“That’s when you start to give up on hiding all the noise you’re making. You’re just trying to keep control, since we both know you’re about to lose it. You’re grabbing for everything you can reach—my shirt, the walls . . . you usually stop on your hair. And you’re _tearing_ at it until you finally have to give up on that, too, and you just let _go_. It’s beautiful.”

Naruto should not be so good with words. Naruto should not take such _delight_ in what they have done. He leans down, and there is no escape.

“I have _one_ suggestion for you, though.”

“What?”

Gaara’s voice comes out higher than it should. In return, Naruto’s grin comes out far more diabolical than it should.

“Next time, maybe try pulling on my hair instead.”

It’s less a suggestion than an order, and Gaara can’t think of any reason not to obey it until that reason strikes him all at once. Naruto can see it in his face, because he frowns to match it.

“What-?”

“I can’t.”

Naruto doesn’t ask for an explanation. They’ve been here before. He only waits.

“It would get messy, even this short.”

But he doesn’t wait long enough. “So? I’ll fix it after.”

“What if you can’t? Even if you can—”

Gaara yanks Naruto’s collar down. He takes satisfaction in the flinch before letting go and doing the same to himself, prodding the skin where it’s sore.

“What if I gave you some of your own? Just to even things out?”

“You say that like I should be scared. I would love that, honestly.”

“ _But I can’t_. Because someone will see them, won’t they? Won’t _she_?”

As Naruto recovers from the sucker punch, Gaara fixes his clothes. It gives him something to concentrate on other than the gaping wound in Naruto’s voice.

“Look, I . . . Hinata and I, we _aren’t_ —”

“You will be. Someday.”

“Not today!”

“You would still have the bruises tomorrow.”

Naruto is silent. When he speaks, it’s still not much more.

“We haven’t _been together_. Like that. She doesn’t want to, either. We’ve talked about it.”

Gaara shouldn’t laugh, but it’s just too hard. “Are you trying to tell me you’re just friends? You two? I’ve seen you.”

“No, no, not at all, it’s just—she’s not into it. Not that part. And I don’t think that’ll change anytime soon.”

“So she wouldn’t care? Is that it?”

“I don’t know! I haven’t asked! What am I supposed to do—sit her down, take a deep breath— _Hina, babe, I’m screwing the Lord Kazekage_ , _you cool with it_?”

To screw. Gaara almost forget that one. Is it the worst one?

Naruto’s voice is rising, so he tries for the mildest of explanations.

“I just don’t want you to make more of this—this— _this something_ than there is.”

“Oh, that’s what we’re calling it now?”

“Shut up. And no, I’m _not_ making you.”

He doesn’t have to. Naruto pushes him off, and Gaara scrambles to his feet. He doesn’t want there to be one second where he needs to look up at _him_.

Not that it’s a concern. Naruto is halfway to the door. Gaara is sure that he’s safe, until he’s not.

“You think I don’t know what _this something_ is about? Gaara?”

Gaara has a feeling that he’s not meant to answer, even if he could. He takes in a breath, guides his legs to the chair, and turns to the bullet-points.

“You’re only in it for a good fuck.”

No. _That’s_ the worst one.

“You don’t have to worry about me misunderstanding. You’ve made it _painfully_ clear.”

Not as painful as the scratch of the pen. Gaara wishes he could drive the point into his own heart.

The door clicks unlocked.

Gaara drops the pen. He addresses Naruto, or perhaps the paper before him. Whichever one listens.

“You’ll be at the meeting next week? The Gokage?”

Gaara stops his breath, until he can hear another whoosh out in a sigh.

“Yeah. I’ll be there.”

Uzumaki Naruto never goes back on his word.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there again!  
> Oh, boy. I suppose I'll start from the top. The rating is mostly because of some of the dialogue, not to mention the rather inherently sexual premise. br />  
> Which brings me to the next part: continuity! I feel like Naruto and Gaara are rather out of character here, compared to how they are /in the canon/, but I promise there's a reason for that. This relationship dynamic (which I absolutely hate, by the way) came about from the events of Nothing Hurts, so if you're confused or just want to know more about how this happened, I strongly encourage you to check that out.  
> This takes place an indeterminate number of months after Shatter, as I believe the 'backstory' towards the beginning hinted.  
> However much I hate what has happened to these two, I really loved getting to explore Gaara's character again. On to some fussier notes!  
> I snuck in one or more 'Uzumaki Naruto's, just to show Gaara's rather conflicted state of mind right now, but I also wanted to emphasize the loss of innocence here--both in Gaara's mind and in the relationship.  
> I also referenced several milestones of the progression of their relationship as seen in Nothing Hurts, just for feels. There are a few sentence- and word-level ones, but the one I'll point out in particular is when Naruto kisses Gaara under his belly button. Gaara was so stunned because, right before their first time, Gaara kisses Naruto's seal in about the same place. And since, at the end of Save, Naruto basically promises to kiss Gaara all over, chances are that Gaara has some even more sensual memories that really turned that gesture into a sucker punch. In summary, Gaara has a flashback of a happier time, and he just loses the will to protest as he realizes that time is gone. And now I'm depressed.  
> I'm probably the only one who cares about this next part--if you're trying to imagine how Naruto and Gaara look right now, especially with all the references to clothes (as they're being taken off), this was written with the outfits from Boruto in mind. Gaara doesn't have his gourd on him right now, since he's in his office in Suna, and as is mentioned, his hair is still spiky. Naruto's hair is also still the length and approximate style of when he was a teenager (you think he has time for a haircut?). They're in their twenties still so their facial structure and such is probably closer to how we see them towards the end of Shippuden. I just wanted to specify, since their appearances and clothing in the last series were fairly on-par with how they're represented in Shippuden/Part II.  
> Also--HINATA! I just love Hinata, which is rather at odds with how much I love this pairing. Even though she's not my favorite kunoichi, she's almost definitely the one I relate to the most. I made her rather a background character/plot device here, and I hate myself for that, but I'm at least a little happy with myself because I got to put in one of my favorite Naruto headcanons: ace Hinata. I love the idea of ace Hinata. Even background ace Hinata that Naruto and Gaara really have no idea what to do with.  
> I'll probably add more notes later. It's the funniest thing-- I start mentally drafting the end note before I'm even done with the work, but once I'm done writing, I'm so drained that I forget half of what I had planned.


End file.
